A confident Sir Bradley Wiggins refuses to rule out tilt at Chris Boardman's
absolute hour record of 56.375km but air pressure could be against him

When Michael Johnson rocked up at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996 wearing a pair of custom-designed golden Nike spikes, it merely confirmed what we already knew. He was going to win.

He knew it. We knew it. And so it came to pass, Johnson claiming a remarkable 200m-400m double which is still unique in the history of men’s athletics. As with coloured boots in football, you do not wear a pair of golden spikes unless you can back it up.

By the same token, Sir Bradley Wiggins knows exactly what he is doing wearing a pair of golden cleats for his hour record attempt at the Olympic velodrome on Sunday evening. Wiggins may be managed by Simon Fuller’s XIX Entertainment company these days, meaning the brand and the look is all-important. But the 35 year-old veteran of four Olympic golds would not allow his shoes or indeed his aero helmet to be sprayed gold unless he was supremely confident of breaking Alex Dowsett’s record, set just a month or so ago up in Manchester, of 52.937km.

The bookies agree, making Wiggins 1-10 odds-on to be the new record holder by 7.30pm on Sunday. Extraordinary odds in what is widely considered to be cycling’s most gruelling discipline.

Accidents can happen, of course. Injuries can happen. Cramp can strike in the sweltering 28C heat of the Olympic velodrome, especially if you go out too fast with a sellout crowd of 6,000 roaring you on. This, remember, is the event in which even the great Eddy Merckx crawled off his bike in 1972, declaring “never again”.

Bradley Wiggins will be decked out in a golden helmet and cleats ahead of his record attempt

Wiggins, though, has been training for seven weeks straight for this, since leaving Team Sky after Paris-Roubaix. He is just back from a training camp in Majorca where he purposely rode around on a slower track just so the London boards would seem easier. Already the sport’s pre-eminent time triallist, its reigning time trial champion, and a master of pacing his rides, Wiggins knows exactly what his body is capable of, what his splits need to be. He has been talking confidently in the build-up of “creating a buzz” and setting a record “to stand for 20 years”.

One thing is certain, he is not planning on having to come back for another go. “If I felt like I was robbed a little bit, like I’d got ill a week ago or something, and we were really on track but weren’t going to get what we wanted, I might have [rescheduled it] it,” he said this week when asked if he would ever again take on the Hour. “But no, I think it will just be once.”

After Sunday night, Wiggins intends to turn his attention to the team pursuit, to next year’s world track championships in London in March, and then his final swansong at Rio 2016. “And that will be me,” he smiled. “Maybe I’ll go for the 10-mile record if I get the right conditions one day, and it’s not blowing a gale.”

Wiggins will ride a Pinarello Bolide HR bike

That last reference was to his unsuccessful attempt on the British 10-mile record on the A63 in Hull last month, which fell short due to high winds. It was a reminder that Wiggins can fail.

On Sunday, though, things are much more predictable. In the Hour, everything is planned right down to the smallest detail; not just the state-of the-art bike with its 3D-printed aerobars and £5,000 wheels, but the air temperature, the music, the commentator. Wiggins has personally requested rider turned commentator Hugh Porter to call his Hour “because I think that he’s the best for relaying information to the crowd and making it more exciting”. He has spoken of watching the 14th round of Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier’s Thrilla in Manila beforehand as a way of preparing himself for the savagery ahead.

The big unknown is air pressure, which cannot be so easily controlled and could make a big difference. Stormy weather and low pressure would be ideal but at the moment the forecast is for bright sunshine and high pressure.

Still, assuming Wiggins keeps his bike upright and goes at the pace he has been going in training, the real question is by how much will he break Dowsett’s mark?

Wiggins has been speaking about going 55km – that is to say, 220 laps of the 250m velodrome. That would raise the bar by over 2km. If conditions are perfect, he has refused to rule out going for Chris Boardman’s absolute record of 56.375km, which Boardman set in the now-banned ‘Superman’ position in 1996. “Whether they’ve changed the rules or not, he still covered that distance,” Wiggins pointed out. “In my head Chris still holds the record.”

Beat Boardman’s mark, and it would almost certainly put off every other time triallist and pursuit rider in the world for the next few years. How ironic it would be if, after all the hype, all the talk of a return to those glorious days when Boardman and Graeme Obree swapped records on ever more esoteric machines, Wiggins only succeeded in killing this new golden era stone dead.

Revised UCI hour record attempts

Jens Voigt

Sept 18, 2014

Jens Voigt became the first rider to toss his casquette into the ring after the International Cycling Union (ICI) announced a significant rule change earlier in the year that allowed use of endurance track bikes. The German set a new mark of 51.110km to beat the previous best, set by the Czech Republic’s Ondrej Sosenka in 2005, at the Velodrome Suisse in Grenchen, Switzerland.

Matthias Brändle

Oct 30, 2014

Just six weeks after Voigt set a new benchmark, Austria's Matthias Brändle wrote his name into the history books after riding 735 metres further than the German with a new record of 51.852km.

Jack Bobridge

Jan 31, 2015

After a strong outing at the Tour Down Under, Jack Bobridge became the first rider to fall short since the rule change. After starting out too fast the the Darebin International Sports Centre in Melbourne, the Australian admitted that the hour was “one of the hardest challenges that a cyclist can take on ".

Rohan Dennis

Feb 8, 2015

The former world pursuit champion and a team pursuit Olympic silver medallist from the London Games followed up compatriot Bobridge’s failed attempt with a successful ride at the Velodorme Suisse – the scene of Voigt’s record. Rohan Dennis of the BMC Racing team set a new benchmark of 52.491km, beating Brändle's record by 639 metres.

Thomas Dekker

Feb 25, 2015

The out-of-contract Dutchman travelled to Mexico for his attempt at the Aguascalientes velodrome, though came up 290 metres short of Dennis’s record having clocked a distance of 52.221km.

Gustav Larsson

March 14, 2015

The affable Swede made a surprise attempt at the hour during an afternoon session of the Revolution Series at the National Cycling Centre in Manchester. Though a strong time trialist, Larsson’s his lack of track experience cost dearly as he fell well short of Dennis’s record. He did, though, set a new Swedish record with a distance of 50.016km.

Alex Dowsett

May 2, 2015

After having to postpone his original attempt following a crash during training, the Essex rider at the National Cycling Centre in Manchester with a measured ride that saw him join giants of the sport such as Fausto Coppi, Eddy Merckx and Chris Boardman with a new record of 52.937km.